Holy moly, this is such a great bottle of wine for the money. We've been touting the virtuous values of Portugal for years now, but the version from Freire Lobo might win the prize for offering the most bang for buck. A blend of Touriga Nacional, Jaen (Mencia), and Alfrocheiro, this exhibits a style and complexity rarely encountered in sub-$15 reds.
A number of the major trade publications have mentioned this wine as one of the top values in the world, and you won't get an argument from me. Here's a wine with the silky, lush texture of a Pinot Noir combined with some of the more complex and savory elements found in Syrah.
2019 Freire Lobo 'Vigno Dao' Tinto
Extreme Value From The Dao Region — The Burgundy of Portugal!
Elisa Freire Lobo was the first female winemaker in the Dao region, one of Portugal's finest and oldest non-liqueur DOC's. She trained with many of the top producers of the region for a number of years before taking over her family's vineyards in 2010. She immediately began the conversion to organic farming, and today, all of her vineyards are organic, even though she chooses not to go through the bureaucratic process of getting certified.
Elisa only works with indigenous varieties, and she makes her wines in a "minimal interventionist" fashion. She hand harvests all of her grapes, ferments with native yeasts, and adds minimal sulfur to her wines. All I can say is she's onto something good! When I tasted her wine a couple of weeks back, I was floored, and I look forward to trying more of Elisa's wines in the near future.
The estate's Vigno Dao is a terrific blend of 40% Touriga Nacional, 30% Jaen, and 30% Alfrocheiro fermented with whole clusters in a combination of neutral oak and stainless steel. The finished wine is impossible not too like. There's lovely ripe and pure fruit, namely cherry, strawberry, and red plum, but there's more than that going on. Savory accents of baking spices, pink peppercorn, violet, and mineral all make an appearance, giving the wine a level of class and sophistication you'll struggle to find in similarly priced reds.
A perfect house or cocktail red, it also pairs wonderfully with everything. I’m not kidding! From pizza and roast chicken to mushrooms and salmon, the wine's natural acidity makes it great for food pairing, but trust me, no food needs to be involved.
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